Vermont Route 5A (VT 5A) is a

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either Route number, numbered or maintained by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered ...

in extreme northeastern

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

. It is an

alternate route An official alternate route is a special route in the United States that provides an alternate alignment for a highway. They are loop roads and found in many road systems in the United States including the U.S. Highway system and various stat ...

U.S. Route 5 U.S. Route 5 (US 5) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway running through the New England states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Significant cities along the route include New Haven, Connecticut; Hartford, Conn ...

(US 5) that travels along the east shore of

Lake Willoughby Lake Willoughby is located in the town of Westmore, Vermont, Westmore in Orleans County, Vermont, Orleans County in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, United States. The lake's southern end is surrounded by the Willoughby State Forest. This state f ...

. VT 5A begins at US 5 in West Burke and ends at US 5 and VT 105 in Derby Center, about south of the

Canada–United States border The international border between Canada and the United States is the longest in the world by total length. The boundary (including boundaries in the Great Lakes, Atlantic, and Pacific coasts) is long. The land border has two sections: Canada' ...

. VTrans' 2006 Route Log lists the official length of VT 5A to be , with the last milepost reading at VT 105 in Charleston. However, VT 5A continues along a silent concurrency with VT 105 from Charleston to Derby Center. The only mention of a concurrency between VT 5A and VT 105 is from VT 111 at its western terminus.

Route description

VT 5A begins in the south at an

intersection In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, their ...

with US 5 in the village of West Burke. Both routes connect Burke with Derby, but VT 5A uses a more direct, easterly route than US 5. VT 5A proceeds north into Orleans County and the town of Westmore traversing through the Willoughby State Forest and along the eastern side of Lake Willoughby before intersecting with the eastern end of VT 16.

History

While the designation of VT 5A has changed since its initial construction, its routing and function have not. The entirety of modern VT 5A was first designated as New England Interstate Route 2A (NEI 2A), part of the

New England road marking system , , , , , The New England road marking system was a regional system of marked numbered routes in the six-state region of New England in the United States. The routes were marked by a yellow rectangular sign with black numbers and border. M ...

that existed between 1922 and 1927. NEI 2A was designated as an alternate to NEI 2, a designation which covered the entirety of modern US 5. When the New England Interstate system was supplanted by the

United States Numbered Highways The United States Numbered Highway System (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these h ...

, NEI 2 was designated as US 5 in 1926 and NEI 2A was redesignated as a state highway.

Major intersections

Scenic overviews

Vermont Route 5A features several scenic overlooks along the eastern shore of Lake Willoughby, including at the Devil's Rock and Mount Pisgah pull-offs. These overlooks provide views of the lake's clear waters and the cliffs that rise on either side.

References

External links